Double blog I: Netherlands, euhm… Aberdeen & ~Manilla Alpha~

Okay, the structure is going to be a little different from now on. There are still 3 more cities in the United States that I need to blog about, but I’m also in Manilla, and I want to talk about that too. So the next three blogs, including this one are going to be “Double Blogs”. I also have to go to internet-café’s, so updates will be irregular


Let’s start with Aberdeen. In Aberdeen I was supposed to be roommates with Gabe, our showmanager. However, due to family circumstances, he wasn’t with us this entire week, what resulted in me being hosted alone. I stayed with an elderly couple. Al and Audrey.

They took me out for dinner right after they picked me up, and there was something I noticed right away: The waiters were superslow, and for the first time I ate in the USA, it reminded me of The Netherlands.
But it doesn’t stop there. The entire landscape of Aberdeen exists of cornfields and flat land! Every once in a while, you see cows in the fields. Also, the temperature is far lower than in the other places of the US I’ve been. About the same temperature as fall/winter in the Netherlands.

My entire week, I’ve been thinking about how much Aberdeen resembles my own little village.

Anyway, my hostparents were totally awesome people, and Audrey’s cooking was the best I’ve ever tasted. Every night, she would make something I didn’t knew even existed, and everything was delicious!

I also spent a lot of time with their son (Colin), who lives a few fields away with his wife (Denise) and little kid (Rayven). They were such nice people.
One day, they brought over a wii from their friends, and we all played the entire evening! Such a good time. I loved playing Mario Kart xD

One day, one of their friends, who also hosted some uppies, came over to A&A’s house, while me and Colin went to his house to fetch his Stallion “Pepper”. Then, all of us uppies got to ride Pepper. I liked it a lot. (Remember how I said my first horseride was in Cheyenne? Well, this will be the official first, since now I had to steer and accelerate and stuff myself). I managed quite well, even did a spin, whatever that was xD

And something not to be forgotten: HALLOWEEN!!!
This year was the first time I got to celebrate Halloween in my life! Hehe, one morning, we all had to bring along a “carving knife”, which we used to carve pumpkins. Me and Marianna worked together and carved a pirate skull in the pumpkin.
Another night, we had a big Halloween party with the cast. Everyone was dressed up as something (Or at least, that was the plan), and just partied along. A few people were party poopers, and didn’t dress up at all. I was a vampire (how original), but I think I managed quite well. I think it looked kinda good.

And now, maybe the most awesome thing of the week: Up With People Land. This week was all about “Immigration”, where we put up a game at the start of the week, until the end of the week. Everyone got a (fake) passport and was a citizen, immigrant, illegal etc. of some sort. The goal of the game was to have a job and housing at the end of the week.
I started as a legal citizen with a house. However, I still had to look for a job (kinda reminded me of real life). I tried to start my own business (A greenhouse where they grow Dutch “plants and vegetables”), but it didn’t get approved. It was supposed to be the cover for my masterplan: I wanted to start a mafia.

So, even without a business, I started my mafia. It mainly existed of stealing passports (Hey, people shouldn’t leave their passports lying around on the floor), and make people distrust eachother.
It went fairly well, and In the end, I had 2 companies, 3 houses and finished the game as the richest man in the group.

But the game in general was a lot of fun. We elected a mayor (Ryan, who actually loves politics a lot) and a lot of death threats and assassination attempts were done.

This makes us sound like a really bad and awfull group of people, but we all realized that this was a game. It was a way to have fun, while trying to get to a higher position in life.

I mean, come one, I even got married in the process, like so many others xD

Well, all in all, I can say this was a really good week. I loved it a lot. Everything was very good!



Next part of the double blog is Manilla!

After 2 or 3 days of traveling (I lost track with all the 12 hour long airplaneflights and switches of timezones) we arrived in the capital of the Philippines: Manilla! Even though it was 7 or 8 in the morning when we arrived, we were all tired and sleepy from the trip from the airport to our “meeting point”.
On a sidenote, we’re gonna be here for 2 weeks total.

So, my experience so far is awesome! The first thing we did was go to a Philippine restaurant with some people, before we got to lunch. I had some Philippine beer (St. Miguel’s, which originates from here!) and grilled pork. Decent portions too. Total 210 pesos (3,30 euro or 3,90 dollar). After that, me and Marylou went to a local icecreamshop. We had a local recipe “Halo-Halo”, which is basically a bunch of different stuff (Seeds, frozen water, coconut, icecream and stuff I don’t recognized) mixed together. It was surprisingly good and filling for something of just 1 euro!

As you might have noticed: things are cheap here.

Oooh, so much happened here, I don’t know where to start… Oh, well, let’s start with my hostfamily. They are so cool xD It’s a gay couple, but I don’t really know how to describe them. I though a few times that they were best described as the “Philippino, gay version of Jack Black and Kyle Gass”, but that’s not entirely true either…
Oh well, we live in an apartment on the 14th floor above a mall. It’s totally awesome, since I can see the entire city from my window. It’s so beautifull! The sea and bay, and buildings everywhere. Joujou (one of my hostdad’s) keeps saying it’s ugly though… I love it.

Oh, hehe, traffic. Well, traffic here is crazy. Cars, taxi’s, jeepneys, tricycles, motorcycles…. Everything is everywhere at every second! A pedestrian has no power, not even on the normal crossing points. The stripes on the roads are decoration, and everyone drives as if their life depends on it! The pointers in some of the taxi’s I’ve been in that indicate the speed and fuel and stuff where broken and everyone seems corrupt.
The best part are the jeepneys! They are old army vehicles that weren’t used for a while. After that, people started to use them for public transport, and now 1/3 of traffic exists of jeepneys. They are the best motorized vehicles I’ve ever seen in my life! Everyone that owns a jeepney tries to pimp it to the max, and because of that, the best pimped jeepney gets more passengers xD Such a cool concept!

Oh, there is a lot that we’ve been doing already.

Since we’re in such a big city, it’s impossible to meet the entire group every day. Because of that, our group is split in smaller group that work at different sites around the city. I’m really honored, because I got chosen to be Crew Leader again. It must mean I did a good job before. I’m so proud.
Anyway, I’m leading a group of 19 people, and we do a lot of different things: We socialize with people in the slums, we teach and play with the kids in the school, and we do light construction work to build houses for the less fortunate. It’s such an honorable thing to do! We rotate what we do. Last time, I spent time with people in the slums, next time, I’ll be in the school, and after that I’ll be doing construction. I’m looking forward to it.
The conditions in the slums are so bad. It’s so sad… The entire “river” is full with trash and doesn’t even look like water. The teeth of the kids are falling out, but still: these are the most beautifull people I’ve ever seen. They are happy too. We provide them hope and show them that the world hasn’t forgotten about them… You, reader, don’t ever dare to forget them! Get of your but and help someone!
Anyway, we are working together with a partner who has been working in Manilla for a long time already. They are building houses and give people more decent houses. They do such a great job! They provide direct help, where the local community can help them building and expanding. Their motto is to provide land for the landless, homes for the homeless, food for the hungry and as a result providing dignity and peace for every Filipino. Their name: Gawad Kalinga. If everything goes well, they will have rebuild all the slums in Manilla in 5 years. It’s such an amazing achievement! I’m honored to work with them.

Our regional learning was very interesting. We saw a movie about a museum that tells us the complete history of the Philippines. (The museum is like, 5 to 10 minutes walking distance from our house, so I’m thinking of going there someday). This country seems to have a lot of war history. Almost their entire history was about war and revolution.
We also went to the “Old Manilla”, which is the beginning of the town, where you could still see the walls from old settlements and we learned some history there too.
After that we went to a place where Gawad Kalinga (GK from now on) already did a lot of work. We saw the result of what we are going to do, and it was so amazing. The place was so colorfull and the people were so happy. I played with the kids for hours and hours, made up a song with them which we performed, played tag on a constructionsite (which gives the game such a huge extra dimension) and carried Dijo (Diejo) on my shoulders for an hour or so. He just ordered me around, pointing towards someone from Up With People, who he wanted to talk to, and at the end of every conversation he asked if the “beauty”, (that’s how he called the girls xD) would give a kiss to him and me xD We had such a good time!
It broke my heart to leave them, and especially Dijo… He was crying when I left. Sigh, he actually said he loved me… I feel so bad about that now…

Well, that’s just a little bit of info, so you can understand what’s going on now. It’s an amazing experience. But there’s still so much more to talk about. “Hello sir”, “thank you po”, “Jollybee” etc. etc. However, not enough time at the moment! And I have to save cool stories for next time, right? ;)

Anyway, I love you all, and remember, try to do something good for someone else every once in a while. It makes you feel good!

Okay, I’m off,

Bubbayz!